Versions 1 - 10
Version 1: The Age of Shadows For hundreds of years, the world of Kormada was peaceful. Most of the globe was covered in dense plant life, earning it the nickname, "The Forest Planet." It was pure, untouched by man or machine, home only to a unique species of equine from which all Earth horses are descended. The Kormadian equines are gifted with a special power--the power of speech--a gift which horses on Earth gradually lost after man first domesticated them. The world contained but one landmass at the time, the supercontinent Avia, on which all members of the species lived in harmony. Somewhere around the year 620K.T. (Kormadian Time), an event which would come to be known as the Great Split occurred. An enormous earthquake severed Avia into four new continents--the Offland, Northern and Southern Mainland, and the Marredland. Lives were lost, homes destroyed, and herds divided. The quake sent the planet into a tumbling orbit around its resident star. It now spun on not one axis, but three, leaving certain parts of the world sizzling hot, some nearly glacial, and others untouched. Those living on the separated continents came to be fiercely protective over their lands, particularly those living in the Marredland. With their continent now nearly molten, those living on it were forced to change their ways. Dark sides and Lights developed amoung the Kormadians, resulting in all out wars. Eventually a third alliance developed--the Neutrals--and then the Rogues as well. Kormada became a world ravaged by disaster, a time which would come to be known as Penumbra--"The Age of Shadows." Version 2: The Gathering Storm Something had happened. The warning signs had been there--those countless stars seen darting across the sky for months. Though the inhabitants had taken no notice of them, feeling them just an everyday occurrance. But they were not. Omicron was soon seen to be the victim of some cruel, galactic plot. A rock the size of the Vaporous Eye smashed into the moon's core, knocking it out of orbit in the process or virtually obliterating it, and it now is on a collision course with Kormada itself. The rings around the moon are more visible now, infested with pieces of itself as it moves steadily closer to impacting the equine planet. All attention has since turned to Nonus, whose weak gravitational field will not be enough to keep Kormada's delicate systematical balance in order. Tides have since become unpredictable. Flooding is inevitable, and the coastal shores of virtually every continent has experienced it. Violant electrical storms plauge the lands, and the blast of the impact has rolled Kormada onto a fourth axis, allowing for seasons. Season One is much like that of earth's winter, only temperatures rarely rise above 17 degrees fahrenheit. The Breeding Seasons are slightly warmer, but not much so. Season Two is blazing with heat, temperatures rising above 100 degrees fahrenheit on a regular basis. But these seasons will not be normal for many months. The planet has unfortunately been covered in a suffocating layer of moon dust--glass, salt, and other minerals--and Prime's warming rays are powerless to penetrate. Light is dim, nights are long, and temperatures continue to fall. Water is poisoned and oxygen toxic, and the stench of death is everywhere. Lolita, Sunbeam, Emethyst, Starburst, Forbidden, Venus, Fuher, Indigo, Vampyr, Enhasa, Deja Vou. These are the names of some dead. Of course, countless more are unaccounted for, MIA, or simply vanished. Nourishment is hard to find, these days, as not much grows without light. Grass is gradually decaying, as are any reasons for inhabitants to continue living in this cruel place. And to make things more difficult, it would seem that there were inhabitants on Omicron itself. They had since made their way to Kormada, creatures of all shapes and sizes and attitudes. Some friendly, others not so much. Some herbivores, some ferocious carnivores that eat anything they can sink their teeth into. Creatures on two legs and four, or none at all. Version 3: At The Far Side Of The World A sweltering heat has suddenly overcome the inhabitants of the equine planet; global warming has suddenly and inexplicably grown exponentially, and the icy regions of Kormada have begun to melt. Oceans have risen and washed out those low-lying islands present within them almost to entirety. Violant storms are plaguing areas all over the globe; monstrous hurricanes, deadly electrial storms, and numerous funnel clouds have joined into one superior force of nature, which intends to annhilate the enormous globe. To make matters worse, the Vaporous Eye--the large volcano located in the Marredland--is no longer a sleeping giant, and the probable cause of the vast temperature rise. Earthquakes rattle the planetary skeleton, emanating from the core of the Vaporous Eye, signalling its awakening. It will not be long now until the beast fully rises, and spews nearly 300 years of pressure-played molten rock into the world above. And the ash emitted will conceal the sight of the passing stars which continue to radiate across the heavens with a distubring increase in frequency. Kormada's strange orbit has led it into the midst of the Acaru VI asteroid belt once again, as it does once per year; this is the same zone in which the destroyer of Omicron was born. Yet through it all, the equines remain, to some extent, blissfully unaware of the impending dangers of life on this harsh planet. For those who do know of it, attention is payed to forgetting such knowledge, and living lives whilst one may. A mysterious area of the world has been found in the southern hemisphere, spanning almost half the circumference of Kormada. Once buried by kilometers of ice, its white-sanded shores beckon all who see it toward it with an almost hypnotic intent. Mountains of rolling green dominate the landscape, and in their center is maintained the purest water source ever known to the equine race. It is untouched by the disease and decay of the rest of the world, thus drawing visitors in like flies. In this paradise, food is plentiful, water even more so, and a lust for beauty is explored. Version 4: The Fire Bringer They thought they would live forever. Nobody lives forever. Not a one. Not even the world beneath their hooves. The Vaporous Eye had spilled its contents into the atmosphere with explosive energy. Over a million tons of dirt and rock were flung into the heavens, as ash coated the lands. Prime’s light, powerless to penetrate the blanket, did nothing in the way of assistance. Now though, a new world has emerged. Thrown into an eternal night, one might expect Kormada to die as it has been striving to for centuries. It has not. Fertile ash and soil leftover from the eruption gave birth to new, night-flourishing herbs. An invasion of bioluminescent flowers coats the lands, flooding the earth with an eerie bluish glow. The trees of the past have long since died; all that remain now are alien versions of what the equine planet once flaunted. Towering trunks are topped with similar glowing leaves of purple, magenta, and blue. Light Berries—a newfound favorite of surviving species—speckle the blackness. What is not already lit may only be alighted by a mysterious deity known only as Ignis Accerso: The Fire Bringer. Version 5: The Demon Beneath The Kormadians had grown used to the darkness in the time since the Vaporous Eye's eruption. The night-blooming plants had virtually overtaken the planet, providing tastey food on which the equines flourished. Though trees still stood tall, their lives had been taken from them long ago. Starved of light and soffocated in ash, they had shriveled and died, some of them shrinking into oblivion, and others choosing to leave their hollowing skeletons behind as a reminder of times past. Light came only from those bioluminescent flowers gathered 'round the lifeless roots clinging to the earth, as if still sucking pointlessly. Now though, another light has lit the ashen sky. Puncturing the noxious smoke layer, allowing brief rays of the near-forgotten light of Prime to streak through in their paths, these objects pierced to the depths of the earth. Their craters--miles wide, deep, and dark--hissed, gurgled, and steamed for days on end. When the first curious equines grew bold enough to look into these pits, their eyes were blinded by heat and fumes; they could tell no one of what they had seen. The Scarbearers knew though. Strange beings, bipedal and lanky; they seemed to grow from within the crafts in the craters. Transfigured by the heat, their faces are boiled, cancerous, and sightless, their upper four limbs are melted and dripping, and their lower two crooked and no good for running. What's more--they are smart. Tactical. Manipulative. They can speak the language of the equines. And they are hunters. Version 6: The Resurrection They hadn't expected what had happened. After months of darkness, after months of the land being coated in a suffocating layer of ash, Prime's light promises redemption. Night and day are once more, and for the first time since the Vaporous Eye's eruption, light is shed upon the skeletal trees died off in the event. The bioluminescent plants have adapted to shed their own brightness only in the evening hours, and their daytime absence has given way to familiar grass. The Kormadian equines are grateful. No longer do the silver pools of poisonous liquid invade the horses' drinking supplies; no longer does the sky pour acid upon the ground. For once, Kormada seems to be inhabitable as, day by day, the sky clears and Prime's light warms the globe. The four axes will soon allow for the seasons to be regular, as the Kormadians have expected for years. However, there is a remembered darkness seen in the light of day. Omicron looms nearer to the equine planet, its asteroid-altered orbit dragging it closer and closer to collision with its keeper, Kormada. Nonus looks on, an eye from above, a satellite, powerless to aide its home planet. Version 7: The First Winter The Kormadians have long since learned to expect change. Change is the facet of life which has ruled their planet for the past six years, and while they have grown accustomed to it, they continue to hate it, and nothing could have prepared them for this. A fierce winter has grabbed hold of the planet, chilling everything from the Weeping Towers down to Dreamscape. No, not even the tropical safe haven can thwart the ever-dropping temperatures, and calm the howling winds. Winds, perhaps, are the greatest destroyer of life on the Equine Planet, for not only do they chill and freeze the landscape, but they rob it of its wetness, driving water into the even colder sky. Temperatures have dipped as low as -30 degrees Fahrenheit, and while they do not remain there for long, such a sudden lack of warmth has cost many horses their lives. Foals are more prone to death by the icy grip of winter than are adults, but the old, sickly, and smaller breeds will feel the pinch as well. Because of a lack of previous winters, the widespread majority of equines will not bear long coats; those who do have grown up in those habitats made cold long ago by the planet's inner mechanisms. Survival in these times is in no way guaranteed, but the discovery of an additional continent has many Kormadians hopeful for a sense of future security. This newest landmass appears strangely artificial in substance, and after a long period of study has been proven to migrate faster than any of the other continents. It seems adrift at sea, though it is currently located just off the eastern shoreline of Dreamscape. Although it is currently covered by a thick layer of snow, as is the rest of the planet, a metal-based surface has exposed itself to curious equine eyes. Asuriel, as the new continent has been named, is nothing other than a massive, floating shipyard, who's territories are naught but ancient, dilapidated ships, built by an unknown entity. As the Kormadians have noticed planet-wide, structures have exposed themselves at numerous points around the globe, giving way to the nervous belief that there were creatures who ruled here before they themselves, and whose continued existence is, at best, unlikely. Four legs and hooves cannot shape iron; four legs and hooves cannot build towers. Those horses who's curiosity demands action will find themselves at the Weeping Towers, combing their twisted, sky-high walls for any indication of the truth of their heritage. Long-told lore tells of the Towers' significance, that they were constructed as a message to the future generations, and that the day upon which they fall will reveal the fate of an entire alien race. In the winds of the fierce Kormadian winter, the Weeping Towers sway their agreement. Version 8: The Flood At last, a break in the chilling cold! The Kormadian equines were more grateful than they'd ever thought possible, for now, at last, the grass was beginning to grow again. Now, at last, the trees were filling with leaves, and the streams filling with fresh water once more. Now, at last, Prime's rays had begun to warm the earth and give new life. The snow had melted away into apparent oblivion. Apparent. The ice on the sea did not force the waters to rise, as physics demanded, but the snow that had melted and overflowed the earth did. Rushing toward the sea, meltwater mixed with saltwater and diluted the liquid to the point of killing off many of the native fauna within it. Many of the predators which lurked in Kormada's lands died off, as the sea had been their main source of nourishment. The horses were pleased to see this. Still, the ever-rising oceans threatened many homes and territories. Sea level has risen by approximately thirty feet, taking out large sections of coastal territories such as Copper Baroness, Marquiessa's Cove, Eagle's Nest, and Nomad's Baron. Any coastal territory will be at risk for further damage, and the horses have been forced to move inland with the rising tides. If the flooding does not stop soon, it is likely that the entire globe will become submerged. Version 9: In The Shadow Of The Moon In the wake of the flood, only devastation has been left behind. The waters have receded back into the oceans for now, but they will return. Omicron's decent toward the equine planet is quickening and steepening. It is only a matter of time now. The Kormadians had long known what awaited them following the asteroid's strike on Omicron so many years ago, but the event had been put out of mind following all the other disturbances that had come after. Unfortunately, the equines were unaware that those disturbances were all in part due to the changed orbit of their once beautiful moon. Tides will swell as Kormada's gravitational field is disrupted by what's left of Omicron's, flooding the lands on a seasonal basis until the torn rock at last collides with its keeper, obliterating virtually every individual being from the face of the soggy earth. In the meantime, temperatures will be inconsistent as Omicron's atmosphere punches through that of Kormada's, opening the gates for dangerous rays emanating from Prime, and allowing the heat to escape. While Kormada's global temperature will lower by several degrees Fahrenheit, most inhabitants won't feel the difference until several more years have passed, and the atmosphere is almost completely dissipated. In the sky, a shadowy mass takes up most of the horizon, the scene magnetic to the eyes of those living below. The combined rotations of the mother planet and its child have produced a series of howling winds, strong enough to tear trees and boulders from their places on the ground. Every so often a voice can be heard among them, the voice of one lost to the fury of the forces of nature. Now, the Kormadians must find a way to save their dying home world, or face extinction in the aftermath of a universe spun out of control, for in the shadow of the approaching moon, no one is truly safe. Version 10: The Leviathan Something had happened. Again. Only this time it was in their favor. Something had offset the shattered moon's course. Something had knocked it back into some semblance of an orbit so as to buy the Kormadian equines a little more time...just long enough for them to bear witness to perhaps the greatest threat of all. His name is Kestrel, and he is a traveler from worlds unknown or even remotely imagined by the equines calling Kormada home. And he is, indeed, the greatest threat of all. For Kestrel is a temperamental creature, capable of devastation on a scale never before witnessed, just as he is perhaps the only one capable of truly putting an end to the Kormadian equines' suffering. For Kestrel, immortality and invulnerability are nothing when compared to the information he withholds from the dying planet below. He knows of Kormada's past. He knows of Kormada's future. And he holds the power to change everything. For Kestrel is a Time Twister, capable of undoing the suffering of each and every individual equine calling Kormada home, as well as that of the planet itself. But getting him to cooperate is another matter entirely. Kestrel resides in a newly formed portion of Kormada known as Kestrel's Keep, a dark land of which little is known and into which only those brave or deranged enough dare to tread. This monster will kill any equine he does not feel worthy of speaking to him. Kestrel's poisonous talons can even slaughter those already dead, and those immortals known as Scarbearers and Scarmakers. He is unpredictable, a deadly concoction of muscle, bone, and ill-temper. If one happens to catch him on a better day, however, Kestrel can make even the most obscure dreams a reality--but always with a catch. Whether Kestrel will help or harm the Kormadians and their beloved home world is up to the manners in which the equines plan to treat him. If he is welcomed, Kormada may be saved. If he is turned away, Kormada will fade away into nothingness as it has been doing for centuries. At the moment, Kestrel's movement of the near-demolished Omicron implies he wishes to aide the Kormadians, but one can never be certain. He seems intent to make the rounds on the planet, invading territories as he pleases and making changes as he sees fit. Those who defy him will lose their lives and their territories will be destroyed. Those who help him will be rewarded. Now, it is truly up to the Kormadians to determine their own fate. And if they choose wrong, Kormada will die.